Small firms must buy £30 licences to get rid of rubbish under EU ruling

Saturday 14 June 2008 00:46 BST

Up to 388,000 small businesses will be forced to buy licences from the Government for the right to get rid of their rubbish.

Even GPs and nurses on home visits must pay £30 a year to take used bandages or needles away.

The system is being imposed after the European Court of Justice ruled businesses that move waste or get rid of it themselves must be licensed.

Under the new licences families who pay firms to take away their waste could face fines and end up with criminal records if it is dumped illegally

Under the new licences families who pay firms to take away their waste could face fines and end up with criminal records if it is dumped illegally

It is part of a purge of 'waste crime' by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Other plans will extend the right of council officers to fine on the spot those breaking bin and recycling rules.

Families who pay firms to take waste will face fines and criminal records if the contractor dumps it illegally.

Ministers will also give town halls powers to seize vehicles from those they suspect of fly-tipping without needing a warrant from magistrates.

Even the smallest business will have to pay £30 a year for a licence to transport waste. Bigger ones will pay more.

The rules will hit mobile businesses such as ice cream or fast-food vans that carry bins for their own rubbish.

The licences must also be bought by rural shops and those running farming or fishing businesses who get rid of their own rubbish, as well as firms that are too small to bother hiring commercial waste collectors.

They will affect electrical retailers who take packaging and old machines when they deliver white goods.

Charities must also be licensed.

Businesses failing to buy a licence for their vehicles could get £300 on-the-spot fines.

Defra says the system is likely to cost the taxpayer £15million a year and could 'alienate people' unless efforts are made to win them over.

Tory local government spokesman Eric Pickles said: 'It is increasingly difficult for families to dispose of their rubbish responsibly.

'Whitehall has created an army of state bin bullies.'

Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: 'We have gone regulation mad.

'We have to license absolutely everything.'

Waste Minister Joan Ruddock said the measures would combat fly-tipping, which increased after fortnightly collections and stricter rules made it harder for homes to get rid of rubbish.

She said: 'There are rogue operators claiming to dispose of waste responsibly but dumping it in public areas. These are the people in our sights.'